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Abuse inquiry to examine Nestor case

Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer

The royal commission into child abuse will examine the case of a former Catholic priest who once received a court reference from Tony Abbott.

John Gerard Nestor, 50, was a priest in the Wollongong diocese in NSW when he was charged with the indecent assault of a teenage altar boy.

In his 1997 court case, the priest admitted he had slept on mattresses on a floor with the boy and his younger brother in July 1991, but denied assaulting the boy.

The prime minister, then a federal parliamentary secretary to the employment minister, told the court Nestor was an upright and virtuous man whom he had known since 1984 while studying at Sydney's St Patrick's Seminary to become a priest.

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"He was ... a beacon of humanity at the seminary," Mr Abbott said.

The magistrate found Nestor guilty and sentenced him to jail.

But in October 1997, the conviction was overturned on appeal - in part because of doubts cast on the accuracy of the boy's evidence - and Nestor never served any time behind bars.

The royal commission hearing in Sydney on June 24 will take a fresh look at the case.

It will also examine correspondence between the Wollongong Catholic diocese and the Vatican in relation to preventative and disciplinary action taken against Nestor.

After the court case, the Wollongong church never allowed Nestor to return to ministry because it sourced "significant additional material" relating to further complaints made against him.

Nestor rejected this and appealed to the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy, which decreed he be reinstated in 2001.

But following lengthy appeals by the Wollongong church the Vatican struck him off the clergy list in 2008 based on what it described as "grave reasons".

Nestor's alleged victim last year told AAP he wanted the royal commission to take another look at the case.

The commission is taking written submissions and inviting leave to appear at the public hearing.